Ascendance
by hideyseek
Summary: They lose themselves, and then find each other. Pre-slash. Final chapter: Merlin never stops waiting. Eventual happy ending.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is part of a chapter fic I had originally planned out, except I had a beginning and an end, but no middle. So I cut out the beginning, and made this. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, which belongs to BBC.**

Ascendance

A Merlin Fanfiction

Chapter One: Future

"Really?"

"No, _Mer_ lin. I say these things to lead you on and show you what a gullible fool you are," drawled Arthur. "Yes, I when I say 'I will try to repeal the ban on magic', I mean _I will try to repeal the ban on magic._ " The prince looked again at his manservant. "Why're you so pleased about it anyway?"

Merlin didn't answer, but set to polishing Arthur's boots vigorously, humming a spring-cleaning tune under his breath. Arthur shrugged. Merlin had always been hard of hearing. He'd ask again later.

Arthur's gaze passed over the throngs gathered outside mechanically, not able to bring himself to meet Merlin's eyes. He had almost promised the servant he would repeal the ban on magic. It must have been Merlin's best friend and girlfriend both being magic, and Merlin not wanting to lose any more magical friends that made him care so much. But Arthur couldn't. The Council wouldn't let him. Essentially, he was a figurehead, a puppet king. How Uther had dealt with this, Arthur didn't know. And he never would.

.o0o.

Merlin stared out blankly at the dais, power flickering along the lines of his face, smoldering in his eyes. Arthur had promised not to be like his father. And yet he did not repeal the ban. The coronation was over and Arthur had done nothing. Said nothing. He stood there as the nobles filed out, not moving until Gwaine took him by the shoulders and gently steered him out of the room and toward Gaius' chambers, murmuring soothing things about Freya.

.o0o.

Later, all he would remember before the end were Gwen's screams, and then his own.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks to all the wonderful reviewers! Here's Part Two of Ascendance. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, which belongs to BBC.**

Ascendance

A Merlin Fanfiction

Chapter Two: King

Merlin threw himself forward, crashing into Gwen and abound her down, shielding her with his body.

"Merlin?" asked Gwen, surprised.

"Are you-" Merlin's question was cut off as pain exploded in his lower back and his voice rose unbidden to a scream.

"Merlin!" cried Gwen. Merlin shifted slightly to look her in the eye.

"Tell Arthur I'm sorry. And that I forgive him," whispered Merlin, biting back a moan of pain as the arrow embedded in his back ground against bone.

Gwen blinked back tears of sorrow and rage. "Who did this to you? I'll _kill_ them!"

Merlin gasped out a reply, still managing to keep his quirky nature at even on the brink of death. "Don't kill your husband, Gwen, it's indecent."

Her reply was choked. "Arthur..."

"He didn't mean it," said Merlin, his voice the barest whisper of sound now. "He thought I was a sorcerer. He was right. I betrayed him."

"No," whispered Gwen. "No, Merlin. Merlin!" Around her, the sounds of battle were cut off abruptly as time seemed to stop, mourning the death of the warlock.

In the distant hills, a roar of agony could be heard as the Great Dragon mourned the death of the last Dragonlord.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: We have come to the third and final part of Ascendance! Thanks so much for everybody who stuck around until the end, especially -. The Afterlife might seem very similar to the Greek Underworld the heroes encounter in** **The Lightning Thief** **by Rick Riordan, the reason for which I'll give in the author's note at the end. So, without any further ado, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, which belongs to BBC. I don't own the Afterlife, either, which is modeled off the Underworld Percy, Grover, and Annabeth encounter in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series by Rick Riordan.**

Ascendance

A Merlin Fanfiction

Chapter Three: Once

Arthur stepped forward into the gloom, turning to nod to the boat driver, but he, and it, was gone. Behind him lay a desolate strip of water a mile wide; before him a plain of dead earth, the edge marked by three gates gleaming gold and silver and bronze in the eerie light. He turned away, turned towards the gates.

As he approached, he noticed a group of people standing in a clump around the entrance of the left-hand gate, the gold one. He stepped forward, as the crowd dispersed and moved away from the pillar, allowing him to see the figure. He stopped dead in his tracks.

It was Merlin.

No, thought Arthur. Merlin died...nearly fifty years ago. He would have passed the gates by now. Certainly having magic didn't prevent you from passing through the Gates of Judgment into the Afterlife. He ignored the knot of worry in the pit of his stomach, the voice in his head saying _You killed him and now he's come back to prevent you from moving on and he'll kill you with magic so your soul disappears_ , and moved forward, pushed along by the crush of the crowd around him.

.o0o.

Merlin nodded to the tourists, all dead from a collapsing tunnel in some old king's tomb, and settled against the pillar to wait. Half a century he'd waited, standing here, giving what advice he learned to the newcomers. He scanned the crowd before him again, halfheartedly. Arthur would surely have lived out the span of his string by now, he thought. But he saw no familiar faces.

Somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, but do you know a man named Emrys?"

Merlin started at his Druidic name. "Perhaps... Why?" He turned to face the speaker, a tall, gangly boy with pale skin and a shock of dark hair. Merlin looked closely at the boy's collar. Surely enough, barely poking out above it, tattooed to his shoulder, was the triskelion symbol of the Druids. "Mordred?"

The no-longer-young boy nodded, seemingly unsurprised that Merlin knew his name, but not seeming to recognize the warlock either. "I have a favor to ask you. There's a man, looking for a 'Merlin'. I told him I'd ask around, Emrys is better known outside of Camelot, I would think."

Merlin nodded, not really listening. _Have you tried Egbert the Scholar, Dragoon the Great, or Sebastian of Bardwick?_ He wondered idly, not certain is he was projecting his thoughts, not sure if he could. Mordred paid no attention.

"Could you point me in his direction?"

Merlin shook his head, saying, "Just show me the man. Go on through the gates. I've been waiting half a century. A few more days doesn't matter."

Mordred nodded and pointed to a tall broad-shouldered figure in shadowy chainmail, his eyes reminding Merlin for an instant of the ten-year-old boy who had seen his mentor murdered before him, the same fear flickering in his gaze. "Thank you," said Mordred quietly.

"Mordred," called Merlin as he turned to leave. "There is nothing to be afraid of. You broke with Morgause at the last moment. That should and will count for something."  
Mordred nodded again, turned, and disappeared in the throng of spirits.

Merlin turned and looked at Arthur, who was now standing before him, looking as he had when Merlin last saw him, decades ago.

Arthur looked back, nonplussed by Merlin's disrespectful bordering on insolent gaze. "Do you know a man named Merlin? I've heard that he also goes by Emrys, or Dragoon the Great."

Merlin let a half-smile flit onto his face. "I should hope so. If I've forgotten my own name that is certainly a cause for worry."

"You aren't helpi-" Arthur gaped. "Merlin?"

"That's my name," agreed the warlock cheerily. "Good thing you've finally learned to say it without stressing the first syllable too much."

"Why aren't you...in there?" Arthur pointed a finger at the gates.

Merlin shrugged. "I'm waiting for somebody." His voice betrayed none of the bittersweet happiness he felt now that Arthur was back. Sweet because the coin was whole again, bitter because he had failed his destiny.

"Gaius?"

Merlin shook his head. "Gaius came and went. I had to practically shove him in the door."

"The knights?"

"When'd they die?" asked Merlin. "I don't remember that." He raised a single finger in a Eureka moment. " _Unless_ it happened yesterday. I got swamped because some idiot crashed into the defense mechanism for some old guy's tomb and buried the lot in there alive."

Arthur shook his head. "Not yesterday. Not dead." He tipped his head sideways, looking surprisingly innocent despite having the face of a twenty-year-old. "Freya?"

Merlin went quiet. "Haven't seen her yet. I think she came before me. I haven't seen her since-" he stopped. "Never mind."

"Who, then?" asked Arthur irritably, forgetting the initial worry he'd had that Merlin would shun him for killing him.

"You, prat."

"Me? I killed you! Do all sorcerers wait around do take revenge on the person that killed them?"

Merlin almost laughed. "Uther would have one heck of a line waiting for him. No, we don't." He added, almost as an afterthought, "I'm a warlock." Silence.

Then, "I thought you might want a tour," explained Merlin

"Tour?"

"Of the Afterlife, clotpole," teased Merlin, falling easily into the banter he'd exchanged with Arthur when they had been alive.

"I suppose," replied Arthur. "You don't hate me?"

"No," said Merlin. "I never did. You didn't mean to, I hope."

"No. No, I didn't," said Arthur, still reeling with the discovery that his best friend, who he had _killed_ , didn't hate him.

Merlin held up a finger. "Like the Great Dragon said, 'A coin-'"

"-can never hate that which makes it whole," finished Arthur. "I've heard." He frowned. "But I killed you, I shunned you because you were magic, tied you up in the dungeons, and pretty much canceled out everything we'd ever done as friends."

"I've found," said Merlin dryly, "that standing against a pillar for half a century does wonders for forgiveness. You should try it sometime."

"You waited fifty years for me?"

"Fifty-three and two months, if you want to be precise."

"I don't. What happened to the tour."

"What tour?"

"Of the Afterlife."

"Oh. Let's go, then," said Merlin, beckoning to Arthur.

And so the warlock and the prince walked through the Gates of Judgment side by side. In the mortal world above, a prophecy had come and gone, and in its place were legends. Southeast of Camelot, a dragon nodded to the setting sun. The reign of the Once and Future King was over, but a new era had come, an era of legends and possibilities. And Kilgarrah laid his great head on scaled feet, and watched the stars rise and twinkle into being, one by one.

.o0o.

 **Author's Note: So I said at the beginning that I'd put this down here, for those of you who take the time to read all those really long author's notes. So, like I said, the Afterlife Arthur and Merlin encounter is very similar to the Greek Underworld the heroes encounter in** **The Lightning Thief** **by Rick Riordan. The reason for this is that, although the characters in the original Arthurian legends would have lived during a time when England was mainly Christian, I felt that Merlin would have believed in gods similar to the one the Greeks worshipped, because, as the prophesized Emrys of the Druids, he would have a strong connection to nature.**


End file.
